Critical Revolutionary Pedagogy in and for the Age of the Network

Abstract

This conversation is an abbreviated version of the article “Critical revolutionary pedagogy is made by walking — in a world where many worlds coexist” published in Policy Futures in Education (McLaren & Jandrić, 2014). The conversation is preceded with a dedicated address to Ukrainian readers, where Peter McLaren and Petar Jandrić place dire struggles of Ukrainian people into the broader context of struggle against capitalism and express their solidarity and support. The first part of the conversation explores global changes in the
structure of production, juxtaposes the mass society shaped by one-way media  such as television with the network society shaped by bi-directional communication powered by the Internet, and links those changes to critical pedagogy. The second part of the conversation explores the main features of the emerging digital cultures, identifies underlying values and ideologies, and links them to contemporary youth movements and the changing role of the state. Finally, the third part of the conversation looks into the relationships between information and power, explores algorithmic regulation through technological innovation, and concludes with reinventing potentials for Freire’s revolutionary love in the age of the digital.